They Actually Built These (10 Photos)

Buildings, sculptures and installations that refuse to blend in

An art school on colored legs, a giant nickel and a prairie-town starship start this collection of ten built oddities. Elsewhere, a brick facade slides toward the pavement, a straw dinosaur opens its jaws and a red postbox ties itself in a knot. Some were temporary; all were physically made.

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🏚️ “From the Knees of My Nose to the Belly of My Toes” — By Alex Chinneck in Margate, UK 🇬🇧

In 2013, Chinneck made a house front appear to slip into its own garden, bending the windows on the way down. It was a temporary installation: the original building was demolished in December 2016.

More: Alex Chinneck’s Architectural Illusions

📷 Photo: Alex Chinneck / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🔗 Follow Alex Chinneck on Instagram

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📮 “Alphabetti Spaghetti” — By Alex Chinneck in London, UK 🇬🇧

A red pillar box ties itself into a knot outside Caxton Works in Canning Town. Chinneck’s sculpture keeps the familiar cap and black base, making the twisted middle look even less plausible.

More: More Architectural Illusions by Alex Chinneck

📷 Photo: The wub / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🔗 Follow Alex Chinneck on Instagram

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🖖 Starship Monument — Vulcan, Canada 🇨🇦

Vulcan put a Star Trek-inspired ship on a stone pedestal beside the road. Local workshops built the almost ten-meter model, unveiled in 1995; its design deliberately differs slightly from the Enterprise.

📷 Photo: Canoe1967 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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🛞 “Everything Is Possible” — By Villu Jaanisoo, Formerly in Helsinki, Finland 🇫🇮

Loops of used car tires formed a five-meter gorilla seated outside a university building in Viikki. Jaanisoo completed it in 2009; the sculpture was later destroyed by arson.

More: Tire zen master gorilla in Helsinki, Finland

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☁️ “Horizons” — By Neil Dawson at Gibbs Farm, New Zealand 🇳🇿

What looks like a drawing of loose paper is a structure on a hill, with cattle resting below it. Dawson’s 1994 sculpture is welded and painted steel, standing 15 meters high.

More: More Photos of Horizons

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🪙 Big Nickel — Sudbury, Canada 🇨🇦

A 30-foot coin became a landmark at Dynamic Earth. Built in 1964, the Big Nickel reproduces the 1951 Canadian nickel, including the maple leaves and the dates commemorating the naming of the element.

📷 Photo: Ryan Sharpe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🎈 Giant Kusama Figure — Paris, France 🇫🇷

A giant inflatable figure depicting Yayoi Kusama leaned over Louis Vuitton’s Champs-Élysées store in January 2023. Its hand appeared to paint dots across the facade, with the windows making the scale plain.

More: Yayoi Kusama’s Public Art

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🦖 “Tyrannosaurus” — By Musashino Art University Students and Local Residents in Niigata, Japan 🇯🇵

Rice straw became an open-mouthed dinosaur large enough for visitors to pose beside its teeth. It was one of six works made by Musashino Art University students and local residents for the 2015 Wara Art Festival at Uwasekigata Park.

More: Giant Straw Animals at the Wara Art Festival

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🔨 The Skinny House — By Nathan Thomas Seely in Mamaroneck, New York, USA 🇺🇸

Three narrow stories, red shingles and a small porch fit into a strip of land in Mamaroneck. Nathan Thomas Seely built the house in 1931–1932; it measures just ten feet wide and 37 feet long.

📷 Photo: Anthony22 at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🏫 Sharp Centre for Design — By Will Alsop in Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦

A patterned box stands on colored steel legs above the older buildings of McCaul Street. Will Alsop designed OCAD University’s Sharp Centre with Robbie/Young + Wright Architects; it was completed in 2004.

📷 Photo: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)